The Hack

STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

Guardian journalist Nick Davies (David Tennant) stumbles upon a conspiracy to intercept the voicemails of numerous celebrities, after a series of salacious headlines and exposes in notorious British tabloid The News of the World. His digging leads to involvement with Southern Investigations, a private surveillance company that has links to the murder of journalist Daniel Morgan, leading Nick into the path of DCS Dave King (Robert Carlyle), who's trying to get justice for the Morgan family.

Over a decade since the phone hacking scandal was exposed, and the once mighty News of the World came crashing down and eventually closed, revealing a hidden, murky world motivated by the motif of 'freedom of the press', it's hard to imagine a time when the phenomenon of 'celebrity scandals' was such a part of mainstream life, and the cold cynicism of what lay behind it. But this several part ITV production brings it back to life, with some hit and miss results.

The story is one of collision, and as such it's two characters juxtaposed together, to create a joint momentum. And so it's a pretty big bugbear that the tone is so unevenly balanced. This is a true life tale of serious gravity, and yet Davies spends a large portion of the series breaking the fourth wall, with a load of naff background hijinks interposed with his monologues that feel ill fitting with the material. Tennant's performance is decent enough, and he certainly bears a resemblance to the real life Davies, but it's Carlyle who steals the show as the tormented, disillusioned detective trying to bring justice to a ground-down family.

It's a worthy story to bring to the screen, and the results are far from disastrous, but an uneven and unfitting tone result in something that doesn't fully align. ***

Great story, fantastic cast, hard to follow.

This is an intriguing and largely well executed portrayal of one of the greatest scandals to have hit the UK in the last 30 years.

However, as compelling as The Hack is, it trips itself up throughout but running numerous adjacent stories lines that are not carefully woven into one another. It also looks to jump backwards and forwards in time without time stamps leaving the viewer relying on character appearance changes - with moustache vs without moustache - as a form of cue.

Overall it's well done, worth watching, but it isn't binge able and you have to give it the attention it deserves.

2 weaving stories that some have said is hard to follow, but I think the jarring complexity is exactly what makes the series engaging. A 10+ year story period is alot to fit into 7 episodes, but it's that very point that the series reflects on so much, as they combine to the ridiculous and known conclusion.

The series focuses on something that should never have taken so long, emphasized by the dramatic and ironic cuts to break the fourth wall, snapping us into realising, that actually happened.

The uniqueness of this series is a welcome break from Netflix like docudramas. It's made me feel anger over compassion, a balance I think was struck perfectly for a series highlighting real life and continued corruption of the media.

It's en engaging watch, with brilliant casting and well structured episodes. Highly recommend.

Outstanding, the style may be out there for sure but I like it. Excellent storytelling of an atrocious scandal. Opens your eyes to how easily we can be led by those in power, and how they get away with it. And you see it again today, hatred is being carefully stoked, and people get pulled along like puppets. Many don't question it - simple lies feel safer than hard truths, and the comfort of belonging to a "tribe" outweighs the discomfort of doubt. And while communities fracture, the real beneficiaries are those funding the hate. They grow richer, seize more power, and tighten their control. We need more Nicks and Alans.

I loved this and the cast is amazing, Tennant leads and is as always as marvellous as he is beautiful.

Lots of actors pop up to tell this important story of injustice I binged the lot in two days it's fast and snappy direction eased the binging on a heavy story Just a shame the wig department was from Temu.